I’m not sure all people are aware of it, but a little program on my blog (called Statcounter) shows me how often people look at my site, and quite often, what brought them to it. Mostly I write this blog for my friends and family, and, yes, for myself, but it’s nice if it serves to inform (such as how long it was really taking to get an unexpedited passport in mid-2007) or entertain (do the turbans in runway shows reflect a geopolitical trend?) strangers, that’s great. It’s part of what blogs are all about about.
But honestly, the biggest interest in my blog, by far, comes from people egosurfing themselves. Nothing will get anyone more interested in what you’re saying than saying something about them. My friends check in a few times a week to see what’s new, but when I get an angry letter and Statcounter shows me one particular user is hitting my site (well actually just one specific blog posting) 25 or 50 times a day, it’s almost always from someone who went egosurfing and was displeased I didn’t think they, or their service, or their favorite band, or book, or all-crunchy super-granola Weltanschauung is all that. Really, no one cares but you, and more often that not, I’ve stopped caring after I said my bit.
But in the interest of testing the power of egosurfing, I’m going to say John Carlson is a poopyhead. Now, I don’t actually know anyone named John Carlson, although it’s a common name. In fact, it’s common enough that I’m sure at least one John Carlson out there is really a poopyhead. I would expect John Carlson to weigh in angrily denying that he’s a poopyhead. If he tells all his friends I said he was a poopyhead, some may devoted or bored enough to read my website, and in order to impress their friend, add comments expressing their offense that I said he was a poopyhead. Finally, someone who’s heard about all the brouhaha about the accusations that John Carlson is a poopyhead will come to the site, and post a comment that John Carlson is, indeed, a poopyhead.
It doesn’t really matter whether John Carlson (any John Carlson) is a poopyhead or not: it’s just amusing to me that so many people have their own specific obessions to google them, and then argue about them, when they don’t even bother to find out (perhaps by reading some other blog entries, which no casual reader seems to do) what the writer’s general stance is. So, John Carlson: I’m sorry I called you a poopyhead while never knowing who you were, but really, aren’t there better things you should be doing besides egosurfing yourself?